Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to online and/or mobile payments and more particularly to a multi-platform, in-application payment system and method for making online and/or mobile payments.
Related Art
More and more consumers are purchasing items and services over electronic networks such as, for example, the Internet. Consumers routinely purchase products and services from merchants and individuals alike. The transactions may take place directly between a conventional or on-line merchant or retailer and the consumer, and payment is typically made by entering credit card or other financial information. Transactions may also take place with the aid of an on-line or mobile payment service provider such as, for example, PayPal, Inc. of San Jose, Calif. Such payment service providers can make transactions easier and safer for the parties involved. Purchasing with the assistance of a payment service provider from the convenience of virtually anywhere using a mobile device is one main reason why on-line and mobile purchases are growing very quickly.
One popular form of online and mobile purchases are in-application purchases. Applications such as, for example, gaming applications, social networking applications, and/or a variety of other applications known in the art, may allow a user to make purchases within the application for gaming currency, communications, application access, and/or a variety of other in-application items or actions known in the art. These purchases are typically preceded by the association by the user of a funding source (e.g., a credit card) with the application, such that when an in-application purchase is made in that application, that funding source may be charged the amount of the purchase. However, such application-purchase systems are inconvenient for the user, as the user must provide the funding source for each application with which the user wishes to make in-application purchases.
Application platforms such as, for example, the App Store® provided by Apple®, Google Play® provided by Google®, and the Windows Store® provided by Microsoft, have attempted to make in-application purchases easier by allowing a user of their application platform to create an application platform account and associate a funding source with that application platform account. The user may then provide their application platform account credentials (e.g., an identification and password) to any application operating on the application platform each time an in-application purchase is made to have that in-application purchase charged to the funding account associated with the application platform account. However, many users either have a plurality of different types of devices that provide different application platforms, or otherwise pay for purchases made from devices that provide different application platforms. In such situations, the user must then create an application platform account and provide a funding source for each application platform.
Furthermore, tracking in-application purchases may raise issues whether using a per-application funding source or a per-application platform funding source. For example, if different funding sources are used across applications or application platforms, the user may have trouble compiling in-application purchases made using the different funding sources in order to track their in-application spending behavior. Furthermore, those funding sources will typically allow the user to spend more on in-application purchases than the user would otherwise desire.
Thus, there is a need for an improved in-application payment system
Embodiments of the present disclosure and their advantages are best understood by referring to the detailed description that follows. It should be appreciated that like reference numerals are used to identify like elements illustrated in one or more of the figures, wherein showings therein are for purposes of illustrating embodiments of the present disclosure and not for purposes of limiting the same.